Health Care for America NOW!
Encyclopedia
Health Care for America Now (HCAN) is a progressive political coalition of more than 1,000 organizations that joined together in 2008 in a successful effort to promote legislation to overhaul the United States health care system and extend medical benefits to most of the population that is currently uninsured. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
(PPACA or ACA) was signed into law by President Barack Obama
on March 23, 2010, and HCAN was credited with being a "major contributor" to its passage. After enactment of the law, HCAN shifted its activities to defending the law from opposition attacks and advocating for the law before Congress
and federal and state regulatory agencies.
, a public charity.
The HCAN Steering Committee is made up of the following organizations:
. HCAN also received $5 million from billionaire George Soros. In its $50 million campaign for passage of the ACA, Health Care for America Now mounted a multi-faceted field program that included television advertising and thousands of actions, events, demonstrations, and advocacy meetings with government officials across the country.
HCAN assembled a network of state-based advocacy groups to carry the message from the ground up to members of Congress--an effort widely credited with strengthening progressive organizations. HCAN published numerous research reports and conducted extensive media outreach during the legislative campaign. An outside evaluation praised HCAN's "effective and disciplined strategic planning, decision-making and implementation; well-thought-out benchmarks; strong and effective internal leadership, efficient allocation of resources to staff and to fund a wide-ranging field program; resilience to buffeting external events; and its creation of opportunities for supporters to meaningfully engage with the movement for reform through multiple points of entry."
, for a rally in support of health reform, and on March 9, 2010, when more than 5,000 people rallied on the street outside a health insurance industry conference at the Ritz-Carlton
Hotel in Washington, D.C. HCAN led grassroots online activists, conducted news conferences and published reports on health insurance industry profits, executive compensation, concentration of market power, and mistreatment of consumers and health care providers.
joined with conservative Democrats
to block the public option and a proposal to allow Americans over 55 years old to pay unsubsidized premiums to the government to purchase Medicare
benefits, which now are provided to the elderly and disabled through a single-payer system that picks up the vast majority of patients' costs. These compromises were the price of passage. Despite those losses, HCAN supports the Affordable Care Act and frequently declares that the ACA's impact will be extensive in the policy and political arenas.
rules. Republican members of Congress have been persistent in criticizing the ACA and seeking legislative tactics to interfere with and undermine implementation of the law.
As a result of these political challenges, in 2010 HCAN transitioned from campaigning for passage of the law to a broad campaign to fully implement health care reform at the state and federal level. HCAN's executive director, Ethan Rome, has repeatedly declared in media statements and in frequent writings on Huffington Post that Congress and the Obama administration should carry out all implementation activities. HCAN has said it intends to do this by identifying significant public policy issues as they arise and taking responsibility to lead campaigns to address them in collaboration with the diverse membership of its coalition. These efforts include pushing for strong accountability measures for insurance companies and countering false information that has been systematically disseminated by opponents of the law. HCAN continues to prepare reports highlighting insurance industry excesses and abuses and to educate
the public about developments related to implementation of the law by state and federal agencies. In the fall of 2010, HCAN co-produced a short, two-part comedy video starring Jack Black and America Ferrera about professional "misinformant" Nathan Spewman, who spreads lies about the Affordable Care Act as part of an industry propaganda campaign.
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a United States federal statute signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. The law is the principal health care reform legislation of the 111th United States Congress...
(PPACA or ACA) was signed into law by President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
on March 23, 2010, and HCAN was credited with being a "major contributor" to its passage. After enactment of the law, HCAN shifted its activities to defending the law from opposition attacks and advocating for the law before Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
and federal and state regulatory agencies.
Organization
HCAN is directed by a steering committee that consists of a wide range of tax-exempt public charities, advocacy organizations, labor unions and civil rights groups. HCAN is a 501(c)(4) issue advocacy organization that runs national and state-based legislative and regulatory campaigns through grassroots action, public education, aggressive media outreach, research and policy analysis. It works in cooperation with its 501(c)(3) partner, Health Care for America Education Fund, a project of The Tides CenterTides Center
Tides Center is a non-profit organization in the United States which provides fiscal sponsorship for progressive groups. Tides Center is classified a 501 tax-exempt organization by the IRS...
, a public charity.
The HCAN Steering Committee is made up of the following organizations:
- AFL-CIOAFL-CIOThe American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...
- American Federation of State, County and Municipal EmployeesAmerican Federation of State, County and Municipal EmployeesThe American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is the second- or third-largest labor union in the United States and one of the fastest-growing, representing over 1.4 million employees, primarily in local and state government and in the health care industry. AFSCME is part of the...
- American Federation of TeachersAmerican Federation of TeachersThe American Federation of Teachers is an American labor union founded in 1916 that represents teachers, paraprofessionals and school-related personnel; local, state and federal employees; higher education faculty and staff, and nurses and other healthcare professionals...
- Alliance for a Just Society
- Americans United for Change
- Campaign for America's FutureCampaign for America's FutureCampaign for America's Future is an American political organization with a strongly progressive orientation. Its main issues of concern include the environment, energy independence, health care reform, Social Security, and education...
- Center for American ProgressCenter for American ProgressThe Center for American Progress is a progressive public policy research and advocacy organization. Its website states that the organization is "dedicated to improving the lives of Americans through progressive ideas and action." It has its headquarters in Washington D.C.Its President and Chief...
Action Fund - Communications Workers of AmericaCommunications Workers of AmericaCommunications Workers of America is the largest communications and media labor union in the United States representing about 550,000 members in both the private and public sectors. The union has 27 locals in Canada via CWA-SCA Canada representing about 8,000 members...
- Leadership Center for the Common Good
- MoveOn.org
- NAACP
- National Council of La RazaNational Council of La RazaThe National Council of La Raza is a non-profit and non-partisan advocacy group in the United States, focused on improving opportunities for Hispanics. It is sometimes confused with La Raza Unida...
- National Education AssociationNational Education AssociationThe National Education Association is the largest professional organization and largest labor union in the United States, representing public school teachers and other support personnel, faculty and staffers at colleges and universities, retired educators, and college students preparing to become...
- National Women's Law CenterNational Women's Law CenterThe National Women's Law Center is a Washington, DC-based non-profit organization founded in 1972. Through litigation and policy initiatives, the Center strives to improve the lives of women and their families in the areas of health, employment, family economic security, and education...
- Progressive Future
- Service Employees International UnionService Employees International UnionService Employees International Union is a labor union representing about 1.8 million workers in over 100 occupations in the United States , and Canada...
- UAW
- United Food and Commercial WorkersUnited Food and Commercial WorkersThe United Food and Commercial Workers International Union is a labor union representing approximately 1.3 million workers in the United States and Canada in many industries, including agriculture, health care, meatpacking, poultry and food processing, manufacturing, textile, G4S Security, chemical...
- USAction
- Women's Voices. Women Vote
- Working AmericaWorking AmericaWorking America is an allied organization of the AFL-CIO which works to build alliances among non-union working people. Working America is a nonpartisan, non-profit organization which provides workers who are not union members input into the policies, goals, and legislative efforts of the AFL-CIO...
Funding and activities
Funding for HCAN's operations has come from its member organizations, individual contributions and progressive foundations, including the Atlantic PhilanthropiesAtlantic Philanthropies
The Atlantic Philanthropies is a private foundation created in 1982 by US businessman Charles F. "Chuck" Feeney. The Atlantic Philanthropies grant-making supports health and social projects in Australia, Bermuda, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, South Africa, the United States and Viet Nam...
. HCAN also received $5 million from billionaire George Soros. In its $50 million campaign for passage of the ACA, Health Care for America Now mounted a multi-faceted field program that included television advertising and thousands of actions, events, demonstrations, and advocacy meetings with government officials across the country.
HCAN assembled a network of state-based advocacy groups to carry the message from the ground up to members of Congress--an effort widely credited with strengthening progressive organizations. HCAN published numerous research reports and conducted extensive media outreach during the legislative campaign. An outside evaluation praised HCAN's "effective and disciplined strategic planning, decision-making and implementation; well-thought-out benchmarks; strong and effective internal leadership, efficient allocation of resources to staff and to fund a wide-ranging field program; resilience to buffeting external events; and its creation of opportunities for supporters to meaningfully engage with the movement for reform through multiple points of entry."
Major actions
HCAN's two largest public demonstrations occurred on June 25, 2009, when thousands of people from around the nation converged on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, for a rally in support of health reform, and on March 9, 2010, when more than 5,000 people rallied on the street outside a health insurance industry conference at the Ritz-Carlton
Ritz-Carlton
The Ritz-Carlton is a brand of luxury hotels and resorts with 75 properties located in major cities and resorts in 24 countries worldwide...
Hotel in Washington, D.C. HCAN led grassroots online activists, conducted news conferences and published reports on health insurance industry profits, executive compensation, concentration of market power, and mistreatment of consumers and health care providers.
Affordable Care Act
HCAN did not achieve one of its central goals, the creation of a so-called public option, a government-run health plan that would introduce greater competition into local health insurance markets, nearly all of which are dominated by one or two large companies. RepublicansRepublican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
joined with conservative Democrats
Conservative Democrat
In American politics, a conservative Democrat is a Democratic Party member with conservative political views, or with views relatively conservative with respect to those of the national party...
to block the public option and a proposal to allow Americans over 55 years old to pay unsubsidized premiums to the government to purchase Medicare
Medicare
Medicare may refer to any of several publicly funded health insurance programs:*Medicare *Medicare *Medicare - See also :*Medicaid*Medicare Australia*Medicare Resources - China*Medicare Rights Center - United States...
benefits, which now are provided to the elderly and disabled through a single-payer system that picks up the vast majority of patients' costs. These compromises were the price of passage. Despite those losses, HCAN supports the Affordable Care Act and frequently declares that the ACA's impact will be extensive in the policy and political arenas.
Activities since enactment of Affordable Care Act
Republican officials and organizations representing big corporations have devoted extensive resources to attempting to repeal the ACA, or at least to withhold the law's designated federal funds. Republicans and their ideological allies have filed federal lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the new law's requirement that starting in 2014 everyone who can afford it must carry health insurance or face a modest fine for going uninsured. Various cases are wending their way through the federal courts, and there is near unanimous agreement across the legal and political spectrum that the issue will not be settled until the U.S. Supreme CourtSupreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
rules. Republican members of Congress have been persistent in criticizing the ACA and seeking legislative tactics to interfere with and undermine implementation of the law.
As a result of these political challenges, in 2010 HCAN transitioned from campaigning for passage of the law to a broad campaign to fully implement health care reform at the state and federal level. HCAN's executive director, Ethan Rome, has repeatedly declared in media statements and in frequent writings on Huffington Post that Congress and the Obama administration should carry out all implementation activities. HCAN has said it intends to do this by identifying significant public policy issues as they arise and taking responsibility to lead campaigns to address them in collaboration with the diverse membership of its coalition. These efforts include pushing for strong accountability measures for insurance companies and countering false information that has been systematically disseminated by opponents of the law. HCAN continues to prepare reports highlighting insurance industry excesses and abuses and to educate
Astroturfing
Astroturfing is a form of advocacy in support of a political, organizational, or corporate agenda, designed to give the appearance of a "grassroots" movement. The goal of such campaigns is to disguise the efforts of a political and/or commercial entity as an independent public reaction to some...
the public about developments related to implementation of the law by state and federal agencies. In the fall of 2010, HCAN co-produced a short, two-part comedy video starring Jack Black and America Ferrera about professional "misinformant" Nathan Spewman, who spreads lies about the Affordable Care Act as part of an industry propaganda campaign.